Door-locking mechanism for milk compartments



Mai. 13, 1923. 4 1,448,066

J. W. HEIGH ET AL DOOR LOCKING MECHANISM FOR MILK COMPARTMENTS Fiied Dec. 5, 1921 50 the inside, so that the door can Patented Mar. 13, 1923.

nssreno-n "To earn DOOR-LOCKING MECHAN SM $9. MEL .Z QMIAB?JY EN$S- Application filediDecember 3, 921. ,S e ria1 l\fo.,51 9,f7 08 To all whom it may concern.

Be it knownthat we, JOHN WV. Helen and FRANK J. BURCH, both citizens of the United States of America, residing-at "Roch- 5 ester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Door-Locking Mechanism for Milk Compartments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to .a door locking mechanism for milk compartments, and has for its object to afford an arrangement whereby a door to a milk compartment or similar chamber can be opened once from the outside, and is automatically locked when closed, following said single opening operation.

A further purpose of the improvement is to aiforda simple, inexpensive, and readily 2O operated mechanism adapted for carrying out the result stated, in a practical way.

To these ends, the invention consists of the arrangement of parts that will be clearly understood from the following description, in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

' In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a sectional view through a compartment and door, and illustrating a preferred form of the invention in elevation, showing the locking member in released position;

Figure 2 is a horizontal sectional view through the compartment, illustrating the locking mechanism in plan;

Figure 3 is a. view similar to Figure 1, with the locking member in locking engage- 40 ment with the door;

Figure 4 is a sectional view on line 4-4 of Figure 3, and

Figure 5 is a front elevation attached to the door.

The invention is applicable to milk and similar compartments, with a view to preventing theft of an article after it is placed in the compartment from outside the house, the idea being to set the mechanism from be opened once from the out-side to permit inserting a bottle of milk or other article, the subsequent operation of closing the door serving automatically to cause it to be locked posi- 55 tively until released again from inside the of the parts that when house. This general scheme may be carried out in various ways, and for the purpose of illustrating the invention, we have shown a ama emen -'1,Provide th a h e door 2 whichmay be provided with the usual sp n iitlifl dlfl i tt ch e a si ewa l. r t em 9 1 i asu1 PQ1rt :t-Q wh c i pivotedthe locking .member et "The latter includes a nose 5 which cooperates with a retaining device '6 attached tothe door, the nose 5 'being so shaped that asthe door is closed, it will ride up over the edge? of the retaining device, of the locking member being suflicient 'to cause the nose 5 ftoi'drop into the recess 7 in the manner ,shownlin' Figure?) and lock the door. At its rear endgthe locking member-is provided withahorizontally extending portion or lug 8,"a-nd'-an upstandingportion"9 at the edge thereof, to afford a seat for a releasing device, preferably in the form of a rod 10, which is pivotally attached to the door and may be mounted on a lug 11 formed integral with the retaining device. The weight of the rod 10 is suflicient to overcome the weight of the forward end of the locking member 4, so as to lift it out of locking position, as shown in Figure 1. The upward and downward movements of the locking member are limited by horizontal lugs 12.

In operation, assuming that the door is closed, the parts are set from the inside by lifting the releasing rod 10 to the position shown in Figure 1, thus elevating the locking member 4 out of locking position. The door can then be opened from the outside. and such opening operation pulls the rod 10 outwardly, disengaging it from the locking member andthereby permitting the latter to fall to its normal position, with the result the door is again closed, after inserting a bottle of milk or other article, the locking member 4 automatically engages the retaining device 6, and the door cannot again be opened from the outside until the parts are reset from the inside.

While the invention has been disclosed with reference to a particular embodiment, it is not limited to forth, this application being intended to cover any modifications or departures that may come within the spirit of the invention or the scope of the following claims.

.the :wei ght of theforward end the particular details set lVe claim:

1. The combination with a door, of a movable locking member acting automatically to lock the door when the latter is closed, and a releasing device adapted to cooperate with the movable locking member and operating by gravity to hold said member out of locking position to permit opening the door once, the releasing device being disengaged from the locking member by such opening of the door.

2. The combination with a compartment and door, of a retaining device mounted on the door, a locking member pivoted in said compartment and acting automatically to engage said retaining device and lock the door when the latter is closed, and a releasing device adapted to engage the locking member and lift it by gravity out of locking position to permit opening the door once, the releasing device being disengaged from the locking member by such opening of the door.

3. The combination with a compartment and door, of a retaining device mounted on the door, a locking member pivoted in said compartment and acting automatically to engage said retaining device and lock the door when the latter is closed, and a re leasing device comprising a weighted member carried by the door and adapted to engage the locking member and lift it by gravity out of locking position to permit opening the door once, the releasing device being disengaged from the locking member by such opening of the door.

4. The combination with a compartment and door, of a retaining device mounted on the door, a locking member pivoted in said compartment and acting automatically toengage said retaining device and lock the door when the latter is closed, and a releasing device comprising a rod pivoted on the door and adapted to engage and lift the locking member out of locking position to permit opening the door once, the rod being disengaged from the locking member and permitted to fall when the door is opened.

5. The combination with a door, of a movable locking member acting automatically to lock the door when the latter is closed, and a releasing device carried by the door and positionable so as to actuate the locking member by gravity out of locking position, the releasing device being drawn away and disengaged from the locking member when the door is opened.

In witness whereof, we have hereunto signed our names.

JOHN W. HEIGH. FRANK J. BURCH. 

